Places to visit in the Algarve, Portugal

Vila Real de Santo Antonio - a visit to the other end of the Algarve

Portuguese Water Dog Trials at Vila Real de Santo Antonio

As you know, we tend to favour the Western Algarve but, following the Portuguese Water Dog Trial trail, we (Maggie and John) visited the border town of Vila Real de Santo Antonio and were very pleased to find a delightful and very Portuguese town.

The original site of Vila Real de Santo Antonio (hereafter known as VRdSA) was an ancient town washed away by a tidal wave in the 1600s.  The town was rebuilt in five months by the Marquis de Pombal with materials brought down from Lisbon, strange this as a quarry was found only a few miles away, after they had finished the building works!  VRdSA is laid out in an American grid style after the Baixa quarter of Lisbon which Pombal also had built; the central square, where the beauty contest part of the Portuguese Water Dog (PWD) trial was held, is beautiful and will be even better after the restoration of a magnificent building on the east side of the square is completed.

To visit VRdSA, travel east along the A22 towards Spain and turn off just before the border.  Only a few kilometres from the motorway, you bypass Castro Marim but you can still see the massive castle built in the 13^th century.  Coming into the town, the road takes you alongside the River Guadiana, with excellent views of Ayamonte in Spain across the river; a ferry runs across the river on a regular basis from the Marina.

The water part of the PWD water trials took place on the Santo Antonio beach, which is about 2 kilometres out of town, at the mouth of the river.  This road passes a substantial number of boat builders and ends in a tight single track road but there is a turning point and plenty of parking  space just before the end.  The beach is huge and, when we were there, it was nearly empty with only a few people walking to and from Monte Gordo, several kilometres in the distance.  This was a shell beach and there were some really pretty mother of pearl shells to be found.  The sea was rough and the PWDs were struggling in waves that were crashing over their heads.  The handlers were having a similar struggle swimming with their dogs or trying to stay on their feet closer to shore,however, the more experienced dogs did have a go at the tests but had difficulty doing the dive as the retrieve item was often washed away!

It was one of those bright sunny days with a really chilly wind that turns out to be so deceptive.  So, all in all, we had a very enjoyable day out despite returning with severe suntans from standing on an exposed beach for 3 hours.

Follow the links for more about Portuguese Water Dogs at Ria Formosa Natural Park and Portuguese Water Dog Breed Shows and Water Trials